The Road Sections 31-40 Summary

How It All Goes Down

Section 31

They trudge on in the rain with the tarp over their heads.

Section 32

The Man thinks death is calling him through rich, colorful dreams.

Section 33

At this point, we get a clue about the setting. They see a barn with "See Rock City" painted on its roof. Rock City is in Tennessee, but there are signs for it all over the southeastern United States. So we're definitely in the southeast, possibly Tennessee.

Section 34

The Man forages through an old farmhouse for anything of value. He finds some wool blankets but nothing else.

Section 35

They scour a supermarket on the edge of a city. There's not much left.

The Man reaches up into an overturned and gutted Coca-Cola machine. He finds a Coke and gives to The Boy, who has never had one of these fizzy drinks. The Boy really enjoys it.

Section 36

They're in the city. Concrete overpasses and highway exchanges. They see lots of corpses without shoes "[s]hriveled and drawn like latterday bogfolk" (36.1).

Section 37

They cross a bridge.

Section 38

They travel south of the city and see "an old frame house with chimneys and gables and a stone wall" (38.1). It's the house where The Man grew up.

Section 39

They walk through the house and The Man does some heavy-duty reminiscing.

The section ends with this little exchange: "We should go, Papa, he [The Boy] said. Yes, the man said. But he didn't" (39.1).